Jones Adds Tic Price To Mean Green Basketball Staff

DENTON, Texas (5/14/07) ? North Texas head basketball coach Johnny Jones has announced that George "Tic" Price will join the Mean Green coaching staff.

DENTON, Texas (5/14/07) North Texas head basketball coach Johnny Jones has announced that George “Tic” Price will join the Mean Green coaching staff.

Price brings over 25 years of coaching experience and a resume that includes a 57.8 winning percentage in 10 seasons as a head coach, as well as multiple trips to the NCAA and NIT tournaments.

“Coach Price will be a great addition to our program because of his wealth of knowledge in coaching as well as recruiting,” Jones said. “Our prior relationship will serve as a great advantage, and will help continue the winning tradition we have already established.”

A former Southland Conference and Louisiana Association of Basketball Coaches Coach of the Year, Price comes to Denton having taken his last three teams to postseason tournaments while accumulating 167 career wins.

Price took the reigns of the McNeeseState program in 2001-02 and had success right out of the gate. He led the Cowboys to a 21-8 record and a trip to the NCAA Tournament after claiming the Southland title in his first season. In five years at McNeese, Price piled up a 74-68 mark, and was also part of a postseason NIT run in 2001 as an assistant.

A two-year stay at the University of Memphis proved successful for Price, who coached the Tigers to the second round of the NIT and a 17-12 mark in his first year. Price, who had Jones on his staff, left Memphis with a 30-27 record.

Price went to Memphis after a three-year stint at the University of New Orleans. His first head coaching job, Price led the Privateers to three straight 20-win seasons and a trip to the NCAA Tournament as a No. 11 seed in 1996 and an NIT bid in 1997.

“I am awfully excited to reunite with coach Jones and to be apart of the North Texas basketball program,” Price said. “Coach Jones is one of the hottest young coaches in the country and has the moxy and the desire to take North Texas to new heights, and I am happy to be apart of it.”

Price also made stops as an assistant coach at Auburn, Old Dominion, Virginia Tech, Tennessee-Chattanooga and RoanokeCollege.

A native of Danville, Va., Price played college basketball at VirginiaCommonwealth and later at Virginia Tech. He served as the Hokies’ captain in 1979 when Tech fell to the LarryBird-ledIndianaState squad in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.